Is Democracy Possible – Now? (A SAGE and Goldsmiths event)

In 2006 legal philosopher Ronald Dworkin asked ‘is democracy possible here?’ meaning the USA. Four years later in an era of financial crisis and partial challenges to neoliberal orthodoxy, a broader question needs to be asked about the possibilities and conditions for democracy anywhere now. What is the role of media institutions in sustaining democracy? What implications for democracy does the intensification of market pressures in the media sector have for democratic politics?

SAGE, one of the world’s leading social science publishers, and Goldsmiths’ Centre for the study of Global Media and Democracy bring together international and national experts to reflect on these questions. In this session renowned and controversial US political theorist Jodi Dean (author of Democracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies Duke UP 2009 and Blog Theory Polity 2010) gives a keynote lecture.

Other speakers included David Babb’s (executive director of 38degrees), Jayson Harsin (American University of Paris), Dan Hind (author of The Return of the Public) Thomas Meyer (author of Media Democracy and editor in chief of Neue Gesellschaft / Frankfurter Hefte).

The event is part of a series of celebrations for SAGE’s 45th anniversary year, championing the value and relevance of social science research.